Overlooking the floodplain toward Sugar Creek Garden in Decatur, Ga.

Oakhurst Park isn’t the only green space in Oakhurst.  Sugar Creek Garden is nestled off of East Lake Drive behind Oakhurst Presbyterian Church.  Drivers can park at the lower level of the church’s parking lot.  Pedestrians can too, or they can enter the long way through a gate on 3^rd Avenue.

While visiting the community garden today on an unseasonably warm 72 degree December day, we spotted oregano, dill, and thyme.  There’s an outdoor sink to wash vegetables and a solar-powered pump.  The garden is funded by the Wylde Center, a Decatur nonprofit.

Beyond the garden is a floodplain maintained by the City.  When it’s dry it would be a good spot for Frisbee or pick-up soccer.  The glade sits between the backs of the homes on 3^rd and 2^nd Avenue.

Running alongside the gardens and the glade is tributary in a flume that feeds into Sugar Creek.  (Sugar Creek feeds into the Ocmulgee and Altamaha River to the Atlantic.)  A berm juts upward on the other side of the flume behind the long backyards of the homes on 2^nd Avenue.  There are a couple benches on top of the berm if you’re creative and spry enough to get up there.  The tributary leads underneath 2^nd Avenue southwest into Atlanta and another Wylde Center Garden, Hawk Hollow, not so far away.

The southern edge of the glade borders 615 3^rd Avenue, an old brick apartment complex owned by an Ethiopian businessman.  Between the apartment complex and the flume are some holly trees and a fence with signs warning people to stay out of the park during floods.

If you’ve never been to Sugar Creek Garden, this is a good time because there’s a Christmas tree lot behind the church near the garden.  If you buy a tree or wreath, proceeds go to the boy scouts.